I was speaking the other night about learning and what it means to me. I have always considered myself to be curious by nature so learning came naturally to me. When I was 9 months old, my mother had to strap me into the pram while my twin sister was not restrained. Apparently, I was always trying to get out of the pram to go on adventures! My friends would say that nothing’s changed there then!
I realise now, looking back on it, that this was part of my makeup and was really about wanting to see what was out there and to learn more. That quest has been going on ever since.
When I worked for PeopleSoft (honestly, the best work experience of my life), people used to call me, jokingly, The Oracle, because if anyone wanted to know anything they would come to me. (PeopleSoft got bought by Oracle later on; what irony!) I have been called a know-it-all in my time too and have tried hard not to inflict it on people as I know it can be annoying. It’s not that I want to sound like I know more or anything; it’s that I get excited about knowledge and love sharing it. I know I was one of those annoying children in school who always had her hand up to answer a question. I remember the thrill of knowing the answers.
So, it makes sense that training and teaching would be something I would do. It started back in Secondary school when I was about 15. One day, the head nun came in and took me out of the class and asked me if I would mind taking one of the Junior school classes as the teacher was out sick! I taught them reading and writing and whatever else they were supposed to learn that day. This happened on several occasions and was something I really enjoyed. Nowadays, of course, that would never happen.
Later on, I taught the various Ministries of the Government of Botswana what they needed to know regarding the change from a paper based Human Resource system to a computerized version. I wrote the manual, which they still use there, I’m told. It was great fun and I loved the excitement of seeing people understand that this new system was not going to make their lives more difficult or that they would lose their jobs.
I taught languages for a while too. Seeing the light go on in someone’s eyes is so gratifying and rewarding.
Someone said it’s important to learn things that you would normally not consider. Something ‘outside the box’. I heartily agree with that. If you stretch yourself to try something new your life will be enhanced just by the process of learning, if not by the actual knowledge itself. I love learning new things; I read everything I can; I love teaching people mostly because I love the excitement and satisfaction it creates.
Do you love to learn? What was your favourite learning experience? Who was your favourite teacher? (Mine was my History teacher, Mary Bergin)
The Views of this Your Say! article do not necessarily represent the views of the Fountain Resource Group. If you agree with this contributor, or perhaps you disagree and would like to write a response, feel free to email us at info@frg.ie to have your say!
This article was originally published in:
Fountain News Digital – December 2010 (Issue 2)
We are re-publishing all articles from our past newsletter, Fountain News Digital, and you can view all completed newsletters here. There were nine issues published in total between 2010 and 2012.
Timeline of our local news services (1994-2013)
Hashtags: #Education 
Hi Maya
When I was young I didn’t have enough time in school as I was working at the tender age of fourteen in a cocktail bar in Dublin Airport.
I suppose I learned back then that a job was more important than school, that was back in the early 60s.
Since then I have never stopped learning and will continue to do so no matter how old I get.
I must say the computer is one of the best things ever for us old ones as it gives us scope to help us learn a little more.
Computerised World 21st August 2014 by/Tony Gorman
The older we get the more we can teach
That learning for us is not out of reach
For back in the past we’d write on a pad
Of the things in our life that were happy or sad
But as the times passed, we started to type
A far distant world then Microsoft or Skype
And yet we’d converse across oceans so wide
By ship and by plane our letters would ride
But then came the computer with all of its might
To tell us of words that we didn’t spell right
And help us with grammar or where an apostrophe goes
And how in a letter we would come to a close
And now we can email across a cyber-world space
Even sending a picture to show off our face
What next can they think up in the years that’s ahead
Will our thoughts be transported without a word said?
And our minds computerised without going to school
And then super boosted they’d be nobody’s fool
There’d be nothing to learn, our knowledge so vast
Our minds overloaded from learning so fast
And computers we would be with no fun at all
And we hope that no virus with make our brains stall
As with old folks like us we’d know not the hour
When our screens just shut down as we run out of power
We’d be totally wiped out, all our data gone too
No way to reboot, it would be the finish of you